


Kassidy Peacock

by ohthewhomanity



Series: And You'll Have A Place In It [8]
Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Asexual Character, Crushes, F/F, Internalized Aphobia, Lesbian Characters, RealDuck!Lena AU, Trans Female Character, discussion of transphobia, discussion of underage drinking, ever so slightly aged up really it's like two years ahead of canon, smashing things as therapy, some swear words including the f word, transgender character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-17
Updated: 2019-08-17
Packaged: 2020-09-05 18:50:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20278108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohthewhomanity/pseuds/ohthewhomanity
Summary: Lena has never had the luxury of being normal. Then Kass showed up – Kassidy Peacock, who’s cool and queer and has absolutely nothing to do with magic, shadows, or adventure. For once, Lena doesn’t suspect any harm will come from bringing someone new into her life. And surely nothing bad will come from pretending to be normal for a while, right?





	Kassidy Peacock

**Author's Note:**

> Posted for Weblena Week Day 14: Free Day

July had spiked uncomfortably hot and unusually humid in Duckburg, and so Webby and Lena had wisely spent the day in the air conditioning of the Duckburg Public Library, wandering random shelves, picking up whatever book seemed like it would either be interesting to read or hilarious if you changed one word in the title, and coming up with increasingly strange questions to pester the librarian on duty with. But now it was the head-home-or-be-late-for-dinner time of day, and the sun had had over ten hours to wear down the bus shelter, leaving it a little shadier but no less warm inside. It was one of those days when you couldn’t even hold hands comfortably, it was so hot. But still, it had been a nice day, so the two girls stood there in companionable silence as they waited for their ride home.

A motorcycle pulled up to the curb right in front of the bus stop, as far into the shade from the shelter as it could go without rolling onto the sidewalk. Its driver put a foot down in the shade and pulled off her helmet, shaking a long ponytail of teal head-feathers free as she did so.

No, they weren’t teal – they were blue and green, mixed together, and the poet part of Lena’s brain was sorely tempted to describe this girl’s color as _iridescent. _She had a black shirt on with long, black-and-white-striped sleeves, and green cargo shorts. And she’d clearly found some brand of eyeliner that was actually waterproof, because for all the sweat that came out from under that helmet, the effort she’d put into her face that morning was still intact.

She was, in short, every kind of cool that Lena had ever pretended to be. Of course, a part of Lena’s brain was aware that this girl’s look and attitude – she had a confident smirk on her face that rested on the cross-section of boredom and amusement – could be just as much a front as her own had been, when she’d first arrived in Duckburg. But for the rest of her brain, it was impossible not to look at this girl and go “whoa.”

The girl set her helmet down on the seat of the motorcycle and grabbed a water bottle from a holder on the side of the bike seat. She straightened again, and her eyes fell on Lena. They weren’t as big as Webby’s eyes – for some reason that was the first thought that popped into Lena’s head right then, maybe because of how much time she’d spent looking into Webby’s eyes, especially in the months since that godawful adventure in the Apinionines* – but there was something undeniably interesting about them. Most of the time when someone had hazel eyes, they were somewhere on a mixed-up gradient of greens and browns all flecked together. But this girl’s eyes were firmly _hazel, _one solid, piercing color_. _Maybe they were contact lenses.

The girl slapped a hand down on top of the helmet. “It’s too hot for this,” she said, taking a swig from the water bottle. “But, you know, safety first.”

Lena nodded. “Cool bike,” she said, and she instantly regretted it, because it was literally the least creative thing that she could have said. This girl probably had annoying guys using those two words as the first thing they said to her all the time, like how they usually said “nice hair” to Lena.

But the girl didn’t seem to mind. “Thanks,” she said. “Do you ride?”

“We haven’t gotten our drivers’ licenses yet,” Webby chimed in. “We’re waiting til I’m old enough. Just a few more months.”

“Going for it together, huh?” said the girl. “Do you share a birthday?”

_For all I know, we do, _Lena thought. Instead she said, “Nah, I’ve been seventeen for a while. On paper, at least.”

“Enjoy it. Once you turn eighteen, people start expecting you to be _responsible._” The girl widened her eyes in mock horror. “My mom hasn’t shut up about dorm room move-in checklists since finals week.”

“Wait – we know you!” Webby pointed directly at the girl. “You were at the Pride Parade!** With the really cool motorcycle all covered in blue and pink and white flags!”

The girl reached over and flipped open a small compartment at the back of the motorcycle, revealing at least one of the transgender pride flags neatly folded inside.

“Where I go, Pride goes,” she said, shutting the lid again. “That explains why you two look familiar, too. I saw you in the crowd. Seems like you’ve swapped color palettes since then.” Her eyes flickered down and up Lena’s torso, landing on her face again. “Make-up’s still on point, though. Is that Maybirdine?”

“L’Oriole,” Lena corrected.

The girl smirked. “That was my second guess. Ah, I should’ve bet on it.”

“But you would’ve lost,” said Lena.

“And then I’d have owed you a coffee, and what a tragedy that would be, having to take you out for one.”

She said it all flatly, her eyes locked on Lena’s, and Lena may have skipped a breath while thinking once again about how richly hazel those eyes were.

“That doesn’t sound tragic,” Webby piped up, completely missing the sarcasm. “Actually, that sounds pretty nice. Especially an _iced_ coffee, right now. Not that we get coffee often.”

“You don’t need caffeine, Pink,” Lena said, recovering and ruffling Webby’s hair a bit.

Webby shoved Lena’s hand away, but she was still smiling. “And _you _might get more sleep if you didn’t drink it,” she retorted.

“Pink, huh?” The girl looked from Webby to Lena. “So does that make you Purple? Or maybe Gray.”

“I’m Webby!” Webby corrected, holding out a hand. “And this is Lena.”

“Kassidy Peacock.” She shook Webby’s hand. “She/her pronouns.”

“Cool!” said Webby. “Same for both of us.”

There was a screeching, groaning sound from down the road, heralding the imminent arrival of the city bus. Kassidy looked over her shoulder.

“Ah, shit, I’m too close to the stop.” She stashed away the water bottle and pulled on her helmet. “Are you getting on that one?”

“Yeah, we’re heading home,” said Lena.

“Shame.” Kassidy mounted the motorcycle and turned the key, bringing it to life. “Well, it was good to meet you. Maybe I’ll see you around?”

“Yeah! Great to meet you!” Webby said, waving. Kassidy winked at them, and then she flipped down her visor and pulled away from the curb, just as the bus made its lumbering way down the street to take her place. Lena and Webby joined the small group of people queuing up to climb aboard, paid their fare, and found seats in the back.

“She was nice!” Webby said, letting her feet swing in the air since they couldn’t quite reach the floor of the bus.

“Y-Yeah,” said Lena, “very nice.”

Webby looked up at her. “Are you okay?”

Lena took a brief self-inventory. She was a bit sweaty, but then the sweater she was wearing was probably too heavy for the summer day. And she was a bit jumpy, for lack of a better word, and relieved to have gotten on the bus? But then social interaction was never easy, especially with strangers. And that’s all that this was, wasn’t it? A chance meeting with a stranger. A very cool stranger.

“I’m fine,” she said, and she thought she was telling the truth. “Tonight’s lasagna night, right?”

* * *

The next time she saw Kassidy Peacock, Lena was out with the entire gang – all three boys, and all three girls, and one rather crowded table outside the Burger Barn.

She was proud of herself for thinking that it was a coincidence when she saw the motorcycle across the way, and the girl leaning against it, looking over at them. Once upon a time she would have assumed that Kassidy was following her with some ulterior motive, even though it had been a few days since their chance meeting at the bus stop. But Lena had put a lot of work over the last two years into being aware of her emotions, and she didn’t feel suspicious right now. She felt a little excited, actually, now that the question of whether she _would _see Kassidy Peacock again had been answered.

“Hey, that’s Kassidy!” Webby said, standing on the picnic bench and putting her hands on Lena’s shoulders.

“Motorcycle chick?” Louie leaned over to look. Webby had told them all about running into the cool girl with the motorcycle from the parade. There were very few secrets between them all anymore.

Lena gently moved Webby’s hands off of her shoulders before standing. “I’ll be right back.”

She began to walk across the grass towards Kassidy, who was now looking at her phone. This time Lena was going to have a better, cooler, more interesting introductory sentence.

“Hey,” she said.

Or not.

“Hey,” said Kassidy, putting her phone in her pocket. “Lena, right? I’m glad you came over.”

“You are?”

“Sure. I was worried you were the shy, quiet type, and I’d have to draw you out. Little Pink did most of the talking the other day.”

“It’s hard not to seem quiet compared to Webby,” said Lena.

“That’s the image I’m getting.” Kassidy nodded at the picnic table. “Is that your squad?”

“Pretty much.” Lena indicated the gang. “Webby, Vi, and the boys.”

“Aren’t those three the McDuck family kids?” said Kassidy.

“Yep. We’re technically foster siblings, or maybe foster cousins, I’m not sure how it all comes out legally.”

Kassidy’s surprise was written all over her face – she really hadn’t known who they all were. “You live in McDuck Manor?”

“Yeah. Is that a problem?”

The surprised expression turned back into the usual smirk. “Problem? No. Kinda cool? Yeah.”

Lena still felt a bit guarded. “I’m definitely not in the will, if that’s what you’re thinking. Assuming that Uncle Scrooge ever plans on dying.”

She was being serious, but Kassidy laughed. “Yeah, they say he’s like a bajillion years old. Do people actually try to use you to get his money?”

“Sometimes. One of my previous guardians did,” Lena said, which wasn’t a lie.

“Oh.” Kassidy fiddled with the handlebars of her motorcycle. “Sounds like that was a bad place to be.”

Lena shrugged.

“But Mr. McDuck got you out of it? He took you in instead?”

“Yeah.” Lena looked back at Webby and the others again, who seemed to be having a napkin fight. “They all did.”

There was something different about Kassidy’s smile when Lena turned to face her again – softer, less cocky.

“You know,” Kassidy said, “I’m still gonna be in town for a few more weeks, before school starts. Want to hang out sometime, help me procrastinate on packing? I’m no billionaire’s grandnibling, but I’ve been told I’m good company.”

Lena hesitated.

“How about this,” Kassidy said after a few moments of silence. “Let me put my number in your phone, and then I’ll ride away, and you can go ahead and delete it if you want to. Sound good?”

Lena laughed a little. “Alright, Kassidy,” she said, taking her phone out of her pocket and handing it over.

“Call me Kass,” she replied as she tapped at the phone. “It’s cooler.”

Sure enough, when Lena took the phone back, a new contact for _Kass Peacock <3 _was on the screen.

“Bye, then,” Kass said cheerfully, putting on her helmet and mounting the bike.

“Bye,” Lena said, and then the motorcycle revved to life, and was gone down the street.

Lena looked down at the phone screen again.

“Did she just give you her number?”

Huey was standing right behind her, the others flanking him.

“Yeah,” said Lena. “Even said I could delete it if I wanted to.”

“That’s an unusual kind of politeness,” said Violet.

“And do you?” said Webby.

“Do I what?”

“Want to.”

Lena’s thumb hovered over the red “delete contact” button, and then shifted away from the screen again. “I don’t know.”

“Well at least you _took_ her number instead of outright mistrusting her,” Dewey pointed out. “That’s progress. A lot better than how you started out with Violet.”

“Hey now, I didn’t trust Vi because she kept asking questions about the Shadow Realm,” said Lena.

Violet shrugged. “It was a fair assumption.”

“But Kass doesn’t have anything to do with magic at all,” Lena continued. “Unless she’s even better at lying than me.”

“But you don’t think she’s lying,” said Louie.

Lena shook her head. “She’s just a girl.”

“And a new friend?” said Webby.

“Yeah,” Lena said, “I guess she is.”

She looked at the spot where the motorcycle had been parked just a few moments ago, and then back at her friends.

“If any of you see her again, any time soon,” she said, “could you not mention anything about – about magic, or witches, or anything like that?”

The others looked at each other.

“Okay,” said Huey, “but why not?”

It was a testament to how much of a unit they’d all become over the past two years that it sounded like he was asking for all of them.

“I dunno. I just... I don’t want her to know about that. About me. Not yet.”

The others all looked at each other again.

“She won’t hear about it from us,” said Louie, and the others all nodded in agreement.

“Thanks, guys.” Lena put her phone in her pocket. “Now did you eat all the curly fries, or are there any left for me?”

* * *

She didn’t delete the number, though it took a few more days for her to decide to text it, just sending _hey, it’s Lena, _because her brain was still failing her on good openings.

Later that night, Kass replied: _What’s up? Comfy evening in the manor?_

And for several weeks that was how they interacted. At first a text every day or two, and then more. They weren’t important conversations – reactions to the too-warm weather were the most common topic – and maybe that’s why Lena kept texting her back. It was nice, that’s all. Nice to interact with someone who didn’t know anything about her, who didn’t have any reason to think that Lena would betray her or curse her or do anything really terrible to her. Lena kept finding new ways to skirt the stranger details of her life – she told Kass that Webby had made their friendship bracelets, for example, but neglected to mention that they had somehow become imbued with magic, evidently through Webby’s pure belief that they would be. It was nice to interact with someone who didn’t have anything to do with centuries-old feuds or revenge plots or magical adventures of any kind. Nice to have the stakes be so low.

Because Kass, as it was increasingly, repeatedly clear, was normal. She texted Lena pictures of cute pets she found while riding by their yards, and she asked for Lena’s opinion on movies and TV shows, and she complained about her parents’ attempts to help her pack for college. They spent an entire afternoon swapping selfies and make-up tips, and another sending each other links to songs from their favorite bands, and though Lena kept her texts short and casual, internally she marveled at the novelty of it all. Because Kass wasn’t unusual. She didn’t _need _to be unusual. She was just Kass, and Lena looked forward to her texts, and eagerly snatched up her phone when it buzzed. There were plenty of days when Scrooge McDuck and Family went off on an adventure and Lena chose to stay home, and she spent those afternoons wandering downtown as she usually did, but what was new was how her eyes now scanned every group of people she passed by for a familiar flash of blue and green feathers. When Lena first came to Duckburg, she anticipated danger around every corner. Now, she anticipated Kassidy, and she wondered what Kassidy would say next, and she thought of things that she might say that would get an _lol _or a coveted _ahaha _in response.

She was alone in her bedroom, staying up way too late in case she got another text, imagining what Kass might be about to say next while she flipped through the latest round of make-up selfies, when it hit her. Lena mentally looked back on her emotions and behavior from the past few weeks, and it hit her _hard._

This was a crush. She had a crush on Kassidy Peacock.

“Oh, fuck,” she said out loud.

* * *

She should have talked to Webby. Or to Louie, he’d have been blunt with her. Or even to Beakley – god help her, she was almost considering going to a grown-up about _teenage girl stuff._

But they were all busy that morning, grabbing their bags, shoveling down breakfast, and asking Lena one last time to join them as they headed out to the Sunchaser, and it was so much easier to just wave them off and put things off until later, or never, yeah, never sounded good.

It was Webby that she wanted to talk to about this anyway, but it wasn’t like she could _really _talk to Webby about this. Webby was too ace for this conversation, she wouldn’t understand. And besides that, she was too devoted to Lena. Just like Lena was to her. Wasn’t she? What did this mean? What was _wrong _with her, that she could even be thinking and feeling something like this?

With her brain otherwise occupied, her feet had carried her to a random hallway, full of paintings of Uncle Scrooge on various exploits. He was glaring down at a giant bear in one of them, about as fiercely as Lena was scolding herself.

Her phone buzzed in her hand.

_Kass: Hey you home? Busy?_

Lena thought way too hard about how to respond, and ultimately went with simplicity.

_Lena: 1) yes_

_Lena: 2) no_

_Kass: Come outside? ;)_

Lena went over to the nearest front-facing window. Sure enough, there was a figure outside the front gate, leaning against a motorcycle.

_Lena: stalker_

_Lena: I’ll be right out_

Lena switched over to the camera screen to check her reflection. She considered touching up her makeup. She felt guilty for considering touching up her makeup. She switched off the screen, shoved her phone and her guilt into her pocket, and went to find her shoes.

* * *

“Where are your shadows?” Kass asked as Lena joined her on the front drive. Which was a poor choice of words, but then Kass didn’t know any better. Nonetheless, Lena couldn’t help but look down and check her shadow on the ground, to make sure it was there and still and lifeless – which fortunately made Kass laugh. She just about always laughed when Lena slipped up like that, like she thought Lena was joking. It was a better response than if she’d questioned Lena’s sanity.

“What? Oh, Webby and the guys?” Lena said, realizing what Kass had meant. “Off adventuring with Uncle Scrooge. They might be gone all day. Sometimes it’s more than one day, but usually they’ll say so in advance, if so.”

“You don’t go adventuring with them?”

Lena shrugged. “I have, once or twice. They include me, it’s just… not my thing, I guess. Things tend to go wrong when I’m there.”

Kass nodded slowly. “Well I was thinking that we could have an adventure of our own,” she said. She held out an extra motorcycle helmet towards Lena. “Here – in case things do go wrong. But somehow, I think you’re worth the risk. Of course, if it isn’t your thing…”

Lena took the helmet. “I’ll give it a try. How do I…?”

Kass helped Lena tighten the chin strap on the helmet, and then she talked Lena through climbing on the motorcycle behind her.

“Keep your feet up, even when we stop,” she explained. “You’re gonna be tempted to lean away from the turns – don’t do that, just let yourself lean with the bike, you’re not gonna fall off. If you need to stop, give me two taps, right here.” She picked up Lena’s right hand and put it on her shoulder. “And while we’re riding, your arms go here.” She wrapped Lena’s arms around her waist, which by necessity closed the space that Lena had been trying to maintain between her front and Kass’s back.

“All okay?” Kass added. “You can say no.”

Lena should have said no. Because Lena de Spell – terminal social outcast, reluctant witch, honorary member of Scrooge McDuck’s family, and girlfriend of the incredible Webby Vanderquack – did _not _get asked out on motorcycle rides like a normal, single person who did the dating thing. So about ninety-nine percent of her brain agreed that she really should say no.

“Okay,” said Lena. And Kass grinned, and somehow that grin made that ninety-nine percent of Lena’s brain shut up for a moment, and that moment was long enough for Kass to flip down her helmet visor and kick off from the driveway.

And then she was flying down the road, and there really wasn’t much space to think about anything, let alone how utterly strange and fantastically _normal _this was. It was the kind of stuff you read about, or that you saw in a cheesy movie – two teens on a motorcycle, on a cloudless summer day, enjoying being wild and free. It was cliché, yes, but those tropes had to come from _somewhere_.

There was nothing really _wrong _with this, was there? Two friends on a motorcycle? Having fun? The cool wind from their speed nipping at her back, creating a chilled contrast to the much warmer parts of her that were pressed up against Kass? Maybe the guilty voices in her head were wrong. This wasn’t a bad thing. This was her interacting with someone outside of the family, even trusting someone. This was progress, like Dewey had said.

Kass brought the motorcycle to a smooth halt on a street Lena wasn’t familiar with, though she knew she could find her way back on foot if she had to – not that she expected that she’d have to, which was a nice feeling. When Lena and the other kids roamed Duckburg, they normally kept their “adventures” between the manor, the marina, and some downtown spots which varied in levels of seediness. The buildings on this street looked like they were right in the middle as far as cost of living was concerned – neither mansions nor cheap apartments, but houses. Lena had lived in a few houses like these, between the less-well-kept homes.

“What’s this?” she asked.

“My house. I forgot my wallet.” Kass helped her down from the motorcycle. “You can wait here if you want. My parents are probably home. They’re cool, but, you know, parents.”

“Seems weird to just stand here with your bike,” Lena said.

“Alright, come in, then.” Kass grabbed Lena’s hand and took the stairs up to the house two at a time, not even taking off her helmet as she barged through the door, Lena stumbling along behind her.

“I’m in and out!” she shouted, dropping Lena’s hand and hurrying over to another staircase. “Wait there, my room’s a mess, boxes everywhere,” she said as she ran upstairs.

Lena glanced around the room. It was a living room, with one of those couches that came in a bunch of segments, put together into a long, curved, plushy seat that took up a lot of the floor space. There was a small TV on a stand, and a large potted plant that might have been fake, and a coffee table with some big colorful books on it. Just across from where she stood in the doorway, a large painting hung on the wall by the stairs – a mandala design.

It was, in a word, normal.

“You must be Lena.”

Lena turned away from the painting. Two adults stood in a doorway by the plant, leading to another room in the house – a short-ish man and a taller woman. Lena could conclude that they were Kass’s parents from context alone, of course, but the man’s bright blue-and-green feathers was a dead giveaway that they were related.

“Yeah, hi,” she said, not entirely sure what the proper protocol here was, and her brain was a bit stuck on how Kass had apparently talked about her to her parents already, and what did _that_ mean? “Kass forgot her wallet.”

“She comes by that honestly,” said Mr. Peacock. “I don’t even bother locking the door behind me anymore, I know I’ll be turning back to grab something before I even reach the car.”

“_Found it!_” Kass called from above, and then she reappeared, sliding down the banister and landing on her feet on the living room floor.

“Kassidy,” her mother said in a warning tone.

“Helmet’s on, I’m being safe!” Kass gestured between Lena and the adults. “Lena, meet the parental units. Don’t be surprised if they start acting like _you’re _their kid, too.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Mr. Peacock said with a smirk.

“Where do you go to school, Lena?” Mrs. Peacock asked.

“Yeah no if we get started on that then we’ll never leave, we’re heading out now, love you bye!” Kass ushered Lena out the door, and as they walked back to the motorcycle, Lena began to laugh. It was just so simple. They weren’t dodging the parents because of some dark secret. It was just to avoid annoying, loving questions. Sure, for the past two years Lena had been happier than she had ever been in her life, but McDuck Manor was hardly what you would call a _normal _household. This was something else, and she couldn’t stop marveling over it.

“What’s so funny?” said Kass.

“Nothing. Where _are _we going, anyway?”

“Someplace with food. What’re you in the mood for, pizza? Chinese? Please don’t say Indian, this city has three so-called Indian restaurants and none of them can do korma right.”

“Pizza’s good,” said Lena, climbing onto the motorcycle behind her. “I can pay you back,” she added as she made sure her helmet was still on tight enough.

Kass flashed a grin at her over her shoulder. “But I don’t _want _you to,” she said, and any continued argument Lena might have had was drowned out by the motor of the bike.

* * *

They ended up on a park bench on one of the uphill parts of town, looking down over the marina, the non-greasy half of the pizza box shoved in a nearby recycling bin and the other half used as a shared plate. They’d chatted some while getting the pizza, but the conversation had fallen away as they ate, and now Lena was just looking out into space, and of course her gaze traced the shoreline to the old amphitheater.

It was hard to tell from so far away, but it must have been in even worse repair now than it had been when she’d stayed there, eroded by weather and the passage of time. She hadn’t been back down there since she and Webby had raided the little room for what little she cared to bring along with her.*** The lava lamp was still trucking along, and she’d long since replaced the crumpled posters with new ones that didn’t smell of mildew, and she’d been sleeping in warm, comfortable beds (either her own, or Webby’s) for two whole years, but still she sometimes thought she heard water sloshing on the other side of the wall while she slept…

“Pizza for your thoughts?” said Kass, poking a slice near Lena’s face.

Lena smiled and pushed it away. “Nothing. Just, memories.”

“I’m sensing they’re not very happy ones.”

Lena bit her lip, carefully deciding which layers to peel back. Finally she nodded at the amphitheater.

“I lived down there for a bit,” she said. “When I first came to town, I… I’d run away, from the last foster home. Long story short, I ended up in Duckburg, and I found an old dressing room under the stage and just, set up camp.”

Kass exhaled. “Wow. That must have taken a lot of courage.”

“What, running away?”

“Yeah, but running away to get out of a bad situation.”

“What makes you think it was bad?”

“Because you chose to live in an old waterlogged theater instead.”

“Maybe I’m just a rebel.”

“Are you?”

Lena wiped her hands on a napkin and set it down among the leftover bits of pizza crust in the box.

“People tend to think so,” she said. “I couldn’t… I never really fit in, at any of the homes, or the schools, or anywhere, even if I tried. And if I couldn’t fit in, then I might as well stand out.” She tugged at the pink lock of hair hanging down by her eyes. “A lot of what I am, I did first to see if anyone would mind, if that makes sense. To give them a reason to look away, since they were going to do so anyway. Or maybe someone would like it, someday. I’m not – I’m no optimist, not by a long shot, never have been, but I thought, maybe, if they saw me at my worst and stuck around, that’s how I’d know I was in the right place.”

She stood up and took the rest of the pizza box to the trash. Kass was standing, too, when she returned.

Kass nodded. “I feel that. I mean, of course I don’t know _exactly _what it’s like, but the feeling of being, you know, out of place? Trying to figure out where you belong? I feel that.”

“You don’t feel like you belong there?” Lena rested her arms against the back of the bench. “In that cozy house, with your parents who try to adopt your friends?”

Kass raised her hands in a casual defensive gesture. “Don’t get me wrong. I love them, they love me. They want me to be happy, I’m lucky to have that, I know. But they don’t really get it. They say the right things, usually, they’ve used every name and pronoun I’ve asked them to so far, but they don’t really _get _it, you know? They try to take it in stride, but they can’t, really. They get caught up on it. It took me a long time to find people who’d just, get it already, and smile and nod and move on with life. I have everything I should want, and I keep looking for other people. Maybe that’s ungrateful, I don’t know.”

“It’s not ungrateful,” said Lena. “Or, it might be, I don’t know. If it is, then I’m ungrateful, too.”

“You want something that they can’t give you,” said Kass.

“And I live in a mansion with the richest duck in the world.”

“Money isn’t everything.”

“You’re right, it isn’t.” Lena adjusted her weight on her arms so they wouldn’t go to sleep, pinned on the back of the bench like that. “Some things that you want, money can’t do jack shit about.”

Kass leaned against the back of the bench right next to Lena. “And what _do _you want, Lena?” she said.

Did she have to be so close? Their elbows were touching. But Lena didn’t move away.

“I’m still trying to figure that out,” she said, and then she made the mistake of looking at Kass, and oh, she really _was _very close to her, those hazel eyes were right in front of her own.

“Mind if I make a guess?” Kass said softly. Lena could feel her breath on her face.

“I… Uh…”

Kass leaned forward and kissed her.

Lena pushed away from the bench, stumbling a little as she stepped around it, putting a slim barrier of wood and metal between herself and Kass. Her face was burning, and the guilty voices were back, louder than ever. _Stupid, _they called her,_ stupid Lena, of course you knew that was where that was going, that’s what this whole date was leading up to, and you _wanted _that on some level, didn’t you, you unfaithful little…_

“Lena? Shit. Hey, if I was wrong, I’m sorry, I thought I was getting signals, I didn’t mean to cross any lines…”

“No, it’s not that, I…” She was stumbling over her thoughts even more than her words. Stupid too-full brain. “The answer’s no, but it, it’s nothing you did, you’re fine, I just, I can’t.”

She wanted to sink into the ground. She almost wanted to fall back into the Shadow Realm. Shadows didn’t have to deal with guilt.

“Why not?” Those sharp hazel eyes scanned her face, saw through her. “There’s someone else, isn’t there?”

Lena said nothing, but her hand went to the friendship bracelet of its own accord.

Kassidy looked down at the bracelet, and back at Lena’s face again.

She started to laugh.

“Oh my god, _Little Pink?_” she said. “No way. Lena, Lena…”

Kass sat down on the park bench, shaking her head.

“Look, I get it,” she said. “She’s so sweet you could get cavities from her. And her family took you in, you feel a debt to them. But Lena… You could do so much better!”

All the thoughts squabbling for attention in Lena’s head suddenly went silent and still.

“And I’m not saying that it has to be me,” Kassidy continued, which was when Lena’s fist collided with her face, sending her tumbling sideways off the bench with an undignified squawk, landing on her back in the dirt.

“How _dare _you.” Lena was standing over her, fists clenched and trembling, her face contorted into an expression of absolute fury.

“How – _fucking _– dare you!” she said again, and the bracelet came alive with a halo of crackling energy – blue, then pink, then blue again – the glow quickly spreading across her fists, and to her eyes.

“You know _nothing! _About me, about her, about anything we’ve been through – and you have the audacity to say I could do _better? _Webby is so much braver, and kinder, and better than either of us will ever be! How the _fuck _can you sit there and tell me who I should or shouldn’t love?! _You don’t know anything!”_

Kassidy was staring up at her, her mouth open but speechless with terror. Lena looked from that horrified face, to her glowing hands, and then she tore herself away from it all, turning and running down the street as fast as she could.

* * *

One of the benefits of being a ghost was that any hearing loss Duckworth may have begun to develop in his old age was now replaced with a supernatural level of perception. So although the door to the mansion’s wine cellar was closed, he could tell that there was someone inside, moving things around.

He dropped through the floor for extra dramatic effect as he moved to confront the intruder –

– and there was Lena, Mr. McDuck’s ward, kneeling in front of a row of Chateau Margopher.

“What in the world are _you _doing down here?!” he exclaimed, which for Duckworth meant raising his voice just a tad.

Lena didn’t even look up. “Hey, Duckworth. You know about alcohol, right? Point me towards the good stuff.”

“You, as far as we know, are underage,” Duckworth said. “Regardless of the accuracy of your paperwork, I’ve kept Mr. McDuck’s wine cellar sealed against teenage intrusion for over half a century.”

“There’s not a locked door in the world that can keep me out. It’s part of what Webby loves about me, remember? Poor girl.” Lena’s voice was dripping with enough sarcasm that you could have bottled it and stored it with the other bitter beverages down here.

“I have a reputation to maintain –”

“And so do I, ghost-man.” Lena pulled out another bottle, looked at the label, and put it back. “So I was thinking, I’ve made so many bad decisions lately, why not add underage drinking to the list? Since _apparently _I’m all about trying new things these days.”

Duckworth thought for a moment. He excelled at many valuable skills, among which were running and defending his employer’s household, throwing spectacular parties, and achieving a level of minor demonic possession. Interacting with the “other generation” was not one of them.

“It seems that there’s something you wish to talk about,” he said. “Quite possibly with a therapist.”

“Nah, I’d rather just bottle it up and forget, that sounds good to me. Now which of these will help me with the ‘forgetting’ part?”

A foot creaked on the wooden stairs, and Duckworth and Lena both turned around to see Webby standing there in the light of the now half-open cellar door.

“Lena?” Webby looked between her and Duckworth. “What are you doing down here?”

“_I _am trying to get now _two _wayward teenagers to return upstairs before I have to _chase _you out,” Duckworth said pointedly.

Lena snorted. “Please. I see stuff _way _scarier than your freaky ghost-face look every time I try to sleep. Webby, what are _you _doing down here?”

“We just got home. You weren’t upstairs.” Webby held up her wrist. Her friendship bracelet was glowing faintly with the aftereffects of a spell. Lena just shook her head. She should have known that purposefully imbuing Friendship Bracelet 3.5 with a mutual tracking spell would bite her in the butt eventually. Not that Webby should have been able to activate that magic, being neither a witch nor a sorceress, but she always found a way to defy Lena’s expectations, didn’t she…

She had a moment of fondness, which was quickly washed away by a fresh wave of guilt.

“Well I’m fine,” she said, shoving herself to her feet. “You can go now.”

Webby’s brow furrowed, and she came down the remaining stairs to the cellar floor. “You don’t sound fine.”

“Well I am!” Lena snapped. “And why should you care if I’m not?”

Of course, that only solidified Webby’s conclusion that she wasn’t fine, now didn’t it.

“Now, really,” Duckworth said, but then he fell silent, looking up at the ceiling.

The sound of footsteps came from above. “Webby, where are you?” Beakley called.

Lena and Webby’s eyes snapped to the ceiling, too. All three stood there in nervous silence for a moment.

“…as I said, I have a reputation of _not _allowing children into Mr. McDuck’s wine cellar,” said Duckworth. “Should Mrs. Beakley hear of this…”

“If you won’t tell, we won’t tell,” Lena quickly replied.

Duckworth nodded, rising up from the ground. “I’ll distract her.”

Webby grabbed Lena’s hand. “Come on, there’s a back exit.”

“I’m going to pretend that I don’t want to know how you know that…” Duckworth said as he disappeared through the ceiling.

* * *

The cellar’s back exit let them out through a trapdoor hidden under the roots of a large tree. Lena glanced around just enough to get her bearings, and then she started to walk off down the slope, away from McDuck Manor.

“Where are you going?” Webby ran up behind her.

“I need to break something,” said Lena.

She didn’t need to say anything else; Webby knew where they were going. They continued through the trees until the ground leveled off again, marking the border of Duckburg’s industrial district. There at the edge of the district was a disused junkyard. Lena had discovered it while doing early reconnaissance for Magica, and she’d brought Webby there not long after the Shadow War. It was the perfect place to go when you wanted to smash things.

Lena grabbed a rusty hubcap from a pile on the ground and tossed it over to Webby.

“Pull,” she said.

Webby threw the hubcap into the air, her incredible upper body strength sending it sailing in a high curve over their heads. Lena tracked its movement with her eyes, extending a hand towards the sky. A ball of pink magical energy shot from her palm, colliding in midair with the hubcap, which fell to the ground again as a burnt, crumpled shell.

“You’re using the pink kind,” Webby pointed out the obvious. “The blue magic’s stronger. From the bracelet?”

“Yeah, well, maybe I’m not in a blue mood.” Lena picked up a long, sharp piece of metal and stuck it through what was left of a car window. “Maybe I don’t deserve to use friendship magic right now. Maybe I’m not worthy of your friendship at all.”

“You don’t believe that.”

“I guess.” Lena knocked some more shards of glass out of the window. “I believe it less than I used to believe it.”

“Lena? Please tell me what happened.”

Lena tossed the metal stick away, watching it clatter through the rubble instead of looking at Webby.

“She kissed me, that’s what happened.”

Everything was silent for a moment.

“How was it?”

Lena turned to face Webby. “‘How was it?’ Seriously? That’s your response?”

Webby shrugged. “How do you want me to respond?”

“I don’t know, maybe with a ‘what the hell?’ Or a ‘how could you?’” Maybe she needed it spelled out for her. “I went on a _date, _Webby. A date. Not with you. With _Kassidy Peacock. _We went for a ride on her motorcycle, and I met her parents, and we had pizza, which she paid for, and she kissed me. And there’s nothing else you want to say to me?”

“Well it sounds like a nice day, I guess, except that you seem pretty worked up about it.”

“Worked up!” Lena rubbed her hands over her eyes. “I don’t get how you’re _not _worked up! Look at you, you’re just standing there. Why can’t you shout at me, or break something? Why aren’t you acting like you’re upset?”

“What good would that do, if I acted like I was upset about it?”

“It would show me that you’re human, for one thing!” Lena shook her head. “You’ve never been mad at me, not once, no matter what I’ve done. You’re just so perfectly kind and self-sacrificing, and it’s supernatural! Are you even _capable _of being upset with me?!”

Webby’s eyes were closed. “What good. Would it do. If I acted upset about this?”

“I just told you! How you’re acting, it isn’t normal!”

“_Well maybe I don’t want to be normal!_”

Webby’s scream echoed through the junkyard. Suddenly her fists were clenched, and her eyes open again, and she was glaring at Lena, and Lena had wondered, and feared, what it might be like for Webby to glare at her, and here it was.

“What good would it do for you, or for me, for me to shout at you?!” Webby shouted. “You are _upset, _Lena. You are _hurting. _And I don’t entirely understand _why. _But what I do know is that I _love _you, you masochistic idiot, and so I am _choosing _to be calm, and supportive, because that’s what you _need _me to be. It’s a choice! It’s always a choice! I’m not preternaturally kind! It’s how I want to be, it’s how I choose to be! So you can take that pedestal you’ve put me on and _shove it up a minotaur’s ass!_”

Lena gaped at Webby. And then she started to laugh. She leaned back against the beat-up car. “Is that – oh man – I’ve never heard you say ‘ass’ before!”

Webby crossed her arms. “Yeah, well, I didn’t like saying it. Did you like hearing it?”

“No. Oh, no. No, that was awful.”

“Then why are you laughing?”

“Because I’m a mess, Pink. I’m a real mess.”

“I love that mess.”

“I know.” The laughter finally died away. “And I love you. I love the way you choose to be. I don’t… I guess I just wanted to hear you agree with the mean old voices in my head, for once. And yeah, saying that out loud now does sound pretty masochistic.”

Webby came over to her, hopping up to sit on the car’s dented hood, careful to avoid any stray shards of glass. “What are they saying to you?”

“That I’m a cheat,” said Lena. “That I’m disloyal, and ungrateful. That you would never do to me what I did to you today. You’d never stray, and that makes me awful.”

“It’s not your fault that I don’t want to date other people,” said Webby. “It’s just how I’m wired, you know? And it’s not your fault if you _do _want to.”

“I don’t want to.”

“It’s okay if you do, though.” Webby’s hands were picking incessantly at a loose thread on her skirt. “I’m ace, and you’re not. And unless that changes, I’m never going to be able to give you everything that you want. So if you need to find that with other people –”

“But I don’t!” Lena reached out and grabbed Webby’s wrist. “This isn’t a need, Webby, I just – I got carried away, that’s all. I’m attracted to Kass, I can’t help it and there’s no point in denying it, not anymore. But I don’t love her. I don’t want to date her. I don’t want to spend time with her that I could be spending with you. You are enough for me, Webby, you are more than enough. You choose to be kind? Well, I choose to be with you.”

Webby smiled, and she threw her arms around Lena’s neck, and Lena hugged her back with equal force. They stayed like that for a bit, in each other’s embrace, and though there was still a small knot of guilt resting in Lena’s stomach, she thought she was starting to understand how this family could fight and hurt each other and still be okay and together in the end.

“So,” Webby said as they finally let go of the hug, her arm sliding down Lena’s to hold her hand. “How did Kass react to you turning her down?”

And Lena began to feel awful all over again, but in a different way than before.

“Right,” she said, “that’s where things went… sour.”

Webby’s eyebrows rose. “Uh-oh.”

“I was kind of standing there all stupid and freaked out, and she guessed that it was because I liked someone else, and that that someone else was you, and then she said that I… could do better. Than be with you.”

“…she didn’t.”

“I really wish I was lying.”

“Well.” Webby tapped her heels against the side of the car. “Fuck that.”

And Lena started laughing again, because “ass” was one thing, but pedestal or no pedestal, the f-word objectively was _not _meant to be said in Webby’s voice.

“Sorry, I just, wow,” said Webby. “I did not expect that from her.”

“Neither did I,” said Lena. “I punched her in the face.”

“Thumb on the outside of the fist, like I taught you?”

“Yep.”

“Good.”

“There was nothing to expect, though,” Lena said. “We’ve been texting, sure, but I don’t really _know _her. And she _really _didn’t know me. That’s what felt so good about it all. Besides how cool she is. She didn’t know anything, so I got to be just some parts of myself around her, I didn’t have to be _all _of myself. And that’s not what I want, I don’t _want _to be just a part of myself – but it was nice to be like that, for a while. It was nice to be Lena the girl instead of Lena the witch.”

Webby nodded. “I told you about how I let the guys and me get kidnapped by the Beagle Boys when we first met, right? So that I wouldn’t seem weird.”

“Exactly. It can be fun to play at being normal, sometimes. But you don’t get any real friends that way.”

“Right.” Webby grinned. “We’re better off being weird, aren’t we?”

Lena grinned back at her. “We so are.”

* * *

The resident kids of McDuck Manor were all on the couch in various piles, watching Johnny and Randy work their way through re-runs of _Ottoman Empire_, when there was a knock on the door.

“Duckworth, could you get that?” Louie called.

There were no footsteps to be heard from the other room, of course, but the door did open.

“Yes?” said Duckworth.

There was a long silence.

“…I, um, are Lena and Webby here?”

Lena’s hand froze on Webby’s head, halfway through her hair. The boys all turned their heads to look at her. That was Kass’s voice. What the heck was _she _doing here?

“I will see whether they are available,” Duckworth said diplomatically. He then appeared in the doorway of the TV room, eyebrows raised at the girls.

“It’s your call,” Webby said to Lena.

Lena sighed. “Screw it, let’s hear what she has to say.”

“Not that you need help throwing her out, but call us if you want it,” said Dewey.

Lena and Webby walked through the foyer and out the front door, closing the door behind them. Kass was standing there, her hands in her pockets. There was no sign of her usual smirk.

“Hi,” said Kass.

“Hi,” Lena replied, crossing her arms.

“So, uh…” Kass nodded at the door. “Ghost butler.”

“Yep,” Lena said flatly.

“Seems like there’s a lot I don’t know about you,” Kass said. “And this household. I mean, everyone talks about Scrooge McDuck and his adventures, but I always thought…”

She trailed off. Lena was just staring at her. Webby was staring, too, but in a more fidgety way, her eyes flickering back and forth between Lena and Kass, waiting to see what was going to happen and how she should react to it.

“Okay, look,” said Kass. “I really made an ass of myself yesterday. I see that. What I said – she told you what I said?” she asked Webby, who shrugged and nodded.

“I was completely out of line, and I’m sorry,” Kass said, first to Webby, and then back to Lena again. “I am so, so sorry. I made a lot of assumptions, way too many assumptions, about you. About both of you. I shouldn’t have done that.

“And I’m also sorry because, once I stopped lying there on the ground all freaked out, I got kind of angry? Like, I was saying to myself that it wasn’t _my _fault, because you hadn’t told me any of this, you hadn’t told me that you and Webby had a thing, you hadn’t told me that you’re – what, a witch? I’m pretty sure that was magic? But that was wrong, that was really wrong of me, because I don’t have any say in when you come out, or who you come out to, about anything. So I’m sorry for that, too. For what I said, and for how I reacted afterwards. And I…”

She paused for a moment, shifting her weight from one foot to another in a very un-Kass-like nervous sort of way.

“…I would totally, one hundred percent understand if you never want to see me again. But here’s the thing – you’re super cool. Both of you are. And assumptions aside, I have this… hunch, that what you have between you is, well, something incredible. And I’d really like to have the chance to get to know you, for real this time. No judgment, no assumptions, just me getting to know you, as a friend. I want a second chance at being your friend. Please.”

Webby looked up at Lena, who stood there for a while longer, her arms still crossed over her chest. Kass stood there, too, waiting to be told to go away.

“…I went full monster on you, and yet here you are,” Lena finally said. “I guess that counts for something. You might just be weird enough to hang out with us after all.”

Webby grinned in delight – because of course she’d already accepted the apology, that’s just how Webby chose to be.

“So you forgive her?!?” she said.

“Oh, no,” Kass said quickly, “I haven’t done anything to earn _that _yet, this is just asking for a second chance.”

“And you can have it,” said Lena. “Not today, though. I’ll text you.”

Kass nodded. “I understand. Lena… thank you.”

Lena shrugged. “I told you, it’s rare enough that people see me at my worst and decide to stick around. It’d be stupid of me to throw that away. But, you know, if you ever hurt me or anyone I care about, I’ll kill you.”

For once, Kass didn’t laugh at a sentence like that, but her smile did return a little bit. “Understood,” she said, starting to walk down the steps towards her bike. “I’ll see you around, then.”

And Lena put her arm around Webby’s shoulders, and the two of them went back inside, leaving the door open behind them.

**Author's Note:**

> *See the “Cupid” chapter of part one of this series, “The Secrets of Lena de Spell”  
**See part four of this series, “Pride and Love”  
***See the “Burgers” chapter of part one of this series, “The Secrets of Lena de Spell”
> 
> I had a whole long author's note typed out, but... I really just want to hear what you think, before I start telling you what I think.


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